Abbot Christopher Jamison: Finding sanctuary

A bit later than planned....

'Finding sanctuary' is a book written to accompany a TV series (The Monastery: BBC2, 2005 - I've never seen it). The monastery was Worth Abbey:

http://www.worthabbey.net/flash_index.html.

Christopher Jamison was, at the time, its head (Abbot).

The series involved (to quote CJ) "five very modern men living the monastic life for 40 days and 40 nights while TV cameras tracked their progress".

The book involves (again in CJ's words) "learning how to build a sanctuary in the midst of everyday life". The author invites the reader to "consider the busy-ness of modern life and what causes it". Then he asks: "What steps can somebody take in order to find sanctuary there?"

He chooses seven steps from the monastic tradition, each of which leads to the creation of a particular part of the sanctuary. Entering through the door (virtue/integrity - this seems to be a preliminary step not counted in his seven), he describes:
* the floor/silence

* the carpet/contemplation

* the walls/obedience

* the roof/humility

* the windows/community

* the furnishings/spirituality

* the altar (? - this isn't as clearly stated)/hope

There is an accompanying website: http://www.findingsanctuary.org "designed to sustain the task begun in this book" (CJ).

In the last post I suggested that that one and this should maybe be considered together. This was because I began to think that 'Gift from the sea' might be seen as a 'woman's book'. Conversely, this could be viewed as a 'man's book'.

What is striking, however, is that (despite the different contexts and use of language) the objectives and some of the conclusions are, in fact, more similar than you might expect.....